Just a little history. I collected these in 2010 in Xiloa as inch to inch and a half juvs. As they grew up, i thought they were many different species. I now again think they are Amarillo..... any ideas?

I am not knowledgeable enough to know. But I always find myself in awe of the Amphilophus species. Hopefully someone will chime in and give a clarification. Whatever the final decision is it should include you getting them out into the hobby.

as they were growing up i didn't know what they were saggittae, xiloaensis etc, as alot of these "supposedly new species" all look very similar as juvs and adults......as they grew up they look like amarillo to me now also...

i would say you got Amphilophus xiloaensis. The amarillo retain the yellowish groundcolor into adulthood much more than in your specimen. Morphologically they are very hard to distinguish although xiloaensis seems to be much more highbodied.

I don't think they were Hogaboormorus since they do not that slight redness in the throat area. Outside of that I am lost for a definitive answer but Amarillo or Xiloaensis definitely narrows the field.

I still have them the male grew to about 8 inches the female only around 5, I still go back and forth between xiloaensis and amarillo, supposedly xiloaensis doesn't get as large as amarillo, hogaboomorum isn't in nicaragua....I really hate not knowing

The three (four?) Amphilophus species in Laguna Xiloá are difficult to distinguish. Fortunately each one prefers a certain type of habitat. Amphilophus amarillo can be found in shallow water above the Chara fields; Aphilophus sagittae usually occurs above sand (where it is easy to catch prey); Amphilophus xiloaensis prefers the rocky parts.

Shallow water can be found in the south eastern part of the lake whereas the north western part (adjacant to the slopes of Apoyeque) has a steep and rocky slope. I dove extensively in the following locations (see map below):
A. close to our base at the shore of Xiloá
B. at the former military "Club Nautico"
C. close to Apoyeque
D. at a place where sulphuric gases escape from the bottom
E. at a place close to the village "Bosques de Xiloá".

We usually found amarillo at locations A., D. and E., while xiloaensis were abundant at locations B. and C. I suspect you have visited location E. although I cannot remember having to pay a fee to get in.

Thanks for the info, where I collected, it was sandy and shallow bottom (6' or less)with plants, these fish were the most common cichlid species along with managuense, "convicts", longimanus, nicaraguense, neets, centrachus and multispinosa. I believe my male looks more like your xiloaensis than your amarillo, like I said seems like mine maxed out around 5-8", do you have a pic of females? There must be a easier way to identify these fish hahahaha, thanks again

There is no difference between males and females of Amphilophus xiloaensis, except that in a pair females are slightly smaller than males. Also both males and females will occasionally show a hump on the forehead.

BTW: To the best of my knowledge there are no Herotilapia multispinosa in Laguna Xiloá. Can you show us a picture?

Looking back at my records I caught multispinosa at Nicaragua and Xiloa, I have pics at gcca.net, looking at pics at "xiloaensis it looks like they have a slight overbit like my female has, she also gets yellow gold when spawning, do you have pics of your females? thanks again great videos I have both only complaint I have with the mexico video there is no narration but great pics...

@Willem: I also have seen the habitat preferance of the species you are talking about and in the light of divergence via ecological differentation this makes perfect sence. I would suppose though that juveniles and young individuals venture throughout the lake in the search of food and therefore it could be possible to catch different species at different habitats. Especially xiloaensis and amarillo wich are by far not as diverged as sagittae is. I have seen young of ecologically such different species A. rostratus, A. siquia, A. longimanus and N. nematopus all feeding together in exactly this shallow sandy and weedy litoral zone.
@newworldsss: How big were the fish when you caught them?

and in additon the amarillo in tanks do not seem to keep the color that well, which makes the two even harder to tell apart.

when i caught them they were about 1- 1 1/2", in the net there were other species also, my female just doesn't look right for amarillo, in willems photo my male looks just like his xiloaensis male, i grew up 4, i still have an extra male which looks just like my male of the breeding pair, the one female i had had a a reddish to orange flush in its flanks....she got killed, with pics it seems as if xiloaensis have a slight overbite just like my present female...